‘It’s a joke’: WHO’s strong complaint against US over COVID-19 vaccines

United States move forward with your COVID-19 vaccination plan which, since September, promotes the application of a third booster dose as part of the regrowth of the disease due to the Delta variant. Given this decision by Joe Biden’s government, The World Health Organization (WHO) has denounced that this is a travesty of the principle of equity since there are still millions of people in Africa who are not vaccinated.

“Just as our efforts seem to be taking off, Africa faces headwinds. Global moves by some countries to introduce booster doses poke fun at vaccine fairness“, launched the WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, during a virtual press conference.

Moeti spoke after the United States announced that it would offer a third dose against COVID-19 to its entire population starting in September with the goal of its protection decreasing “over time” and before the advance of the Delta variant, more contagious and predominant in this country.

In this context, the regional director and other African health officials, including the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke out against booster injections because less than 2% of the African continent’s population of 1.3 billion people is fully immunized.

The situation in Africa remains “very fragile”, with the Delta variant now dominant in most of the continent’s 54 countries., assured Moeti, and recalled that more than 7.3 million cases and more than 186,000 deaths have been confirmed on the continent, where health systems are working to provide medical oxygen and other care .

For her part, the UN official indicated that given the “already very unequal” situation in the world in terms of vaccine supply, the emphasis is on advancing the vaccination of populations in Africa, including countries lag far behind much of the world in access and coverage, CNN reported.

Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called “inconceivable” that some countries are now offering booster doses “when so many people remain unprotectedMoeti, meanwhile, insisted on the need for “the richest countries with even larger supplies than their populations to increase their donations to underprivileged African countries.”

For their part, the African health authorities have been optimistic in recent weeks about a change of pace from August thanks to a significant increase in dose receipts, with shipments from the African Union (AU ) – via a collective acquisition mechanism – and with a new impetus from the Covax fair access platform, promoted by the WHO.

Inequality in the administration of COVID-19 vaccines around the world

As, Moeti was convinced that the goal of vaccinating at least 30% of Africa’s population by the end of this year is “still within reach”. However, this percentage will continue to contrast with figures from regions like Europe or the United States, which already have more than half of their population fully vaccinated and are considering or already have plans for inoculation of booster doses.

The United States announced that the booster vaccine will be available from September 20 for Americans who were inoculated with the medicines Pfizer and Moderna and who received the second dose at least eight months ago. The country has already administered around 358 million doses, nearly five times more than the entire African continent, which has applied around 78 million so far, according to the latest official data.